SanDisk doubles SD storage!By
Mike Tomkins(Wednesday, January 9, 2002 - 15:10 EST)Maximum size of Secure Digital cards goes from 128MB to a roomy 256MB...SanDisk Corp. has announced that it is preparing to begin shipping Secure Digital cards in a new capacity of 256MB. Previously available with a maximum capacity only half this, the addition means SanDisk's range of SD cards will now include 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256MB units. The new 256MB card will cost approximately $199 when it reaches the market later this quarter.

Secure Digital cards have dimensions of 32 x 24 x 2.1mm, and are similar to the MultiMediaCard format but with the addition of built-in copy protection technology. SanDisk claims that its new card, which uses a 1-Gigabit NAND flash chip, is "capable of storing up to eight hours of digital music, more than 80 minutes of MPEG-4 video or more than 250 high-resolution digital images."Source:
SanDisk Corp.

Original Source Press Release:

SanDisk Introduces 256 Megabyte SD Card At CES

New Memory Card Gives Consumers Enough Capacity To Store Large Amounts Of DIgital Images, Music Or Video; First SD Card Using 1-Gigabit NAND Flash Chip With Multi-Level Cell Technology

LAS VEGAS, NV, Jan. 9, 2002 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced the 256 megabyte (MB) SD Card, a removable, postage stamp-sized flash memory card capable of storing up to eight hours of digital music, more than 80 minutes of MPEG-4 video or more than 250 high-resolution digital images. The announcement, made at the Consumer Electronics Show, doubles the capacity of SanDisk's highest capacity SD Cards currently shipping. SanDisk is demonstrating the new 256MB SD Card at its booth (#11511) and the SD Pavilion (#10536).

Bo Ericsson, vice president of OEM product marketing at SanDisk, said, "The growing popularity of consumer electronics devices that require considerable storage capacity such as digital video camcorders, digital cameras, handheld computers, audio players and cells phones is expected to fuel the demand for high capacity SD Cards. Indeed, the SD Card is already emerging as a universal mechanism to store and transfer images, video, audio and data between these various platforms."

Richard Wawrzyniak, director of non-volatile memory at Semico Research Corp., said, "The robust consumer electronics market continues to drive demand for higher capacity storage cards in applications such as digital video camcorders which require considerable storage. These cards are becoming so much more cost effective that eventually consumers will be able to store as many audio, video and data files they want at a very reasonable price."

The SD Card is a flash memory storage device with built-in security functions designed to facilitate the secure exchange of content between devices and the card. It is 32 millimeters (mm) long, 24mm wide and 2.1mm thick. More than 100 products with slots for the card have been introduced.

The 256MB SanDisk SD Card uses a 1-gigabit (1Gbit, or 1024Megabit) NAND flash memory chip, the next generation of flash memory that effectively doubles the amount of storage capacity in these flash memory cards. It is based on the patented multi-level cell (MLC) technology pioneered by SanDisk that allows two bits of data to be stored in one memory cell, doubling memory capacity. The commercialization of NAND MLC flash is a critical step to expand existing markets and enable new markets for flash memory data storage.

SanDisk is currently shipping 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128MB SD cards. The 256MB SanDisk SD Card will be available in this quarter and is expected to sell for approximately $199.

SanDisk Corporation, the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data, digital imaging and audio storage products using its patented, high density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is based in Sunnyvale, CA.

The matters discussed in this news release contain forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties as described under the caption, "Factors That May Affect Future Result" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies assume no obligation to update the information in this release.